In the early years of the smelter in Great Falls, water pollution appeared to be a bigger issue than fouled air. Boston & Montana routinely dumped toxic material into the Missouri River, to the chagrin of residents downriver in and near Fort Benton, according to historical records.

Not only had Great Falls edged out Fort Benton for regional dominance, it was poisoning water that flowed into the downstream town, according to an article by historians Gordon Morris Bakken and J. Elwood Bakken in the Winter 2001 issue of Montana: The Magazine of Western History.

The city of Fort Benton sued the Great Falls smelter in 1905, according to the article. In the end of the long-running dispute, the Boston & Montana Co. paid farmer-rancher William Witt $20,000 in a 1910 settlement. Witt claimed water pollution from the Black Eagle plant ruined his agricultural operation.

Over the years, work at the Great Falls plant could be hazardous. According to Tribune files, a 25-year-old worker, Erwin Wettels, died from inhaling poison fumes at the Anaconda Co. zinc plant in Black Eagle in September 1950 in an accident that injured several others.

TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Boston & Montana Co. Operated a smelter in the early days of the industrial site. The first stack, shown here, was 185 feet tall.